You can help rewrite the Green Party Platform for 2010

From Green Party Watch:

Dear Green friends,

I’d like to invite you to an experiment in online democracy.

The Green Party of the United States is amending its platform. I volunteered to serve as the co-chair of the Platform Committee.

We’re asking you to help update the Green platform in an open, collaborative process on GreenChange.org and GP.org, the website of the Green Party of the United States.

A number of volunteers have already joined our platform writing team – will you help too?

The Green platform represents our movement’s collective aspirations for an American society based on peace, justice, democracy and sustainability.

In the spirit of grassroots democracy, we want to maximize participation in the platform amendment process. So we’ve posted the 2004 Green platform, section by section, and we invite you to post your suggestions on how to improve it.

Read and comment on the platform. Post your suggested amendments too.

Democracy
Social Justice
Ecological Sustainability
Economic Sustainability
Nonviolence

We have until February 15th to collaborate, discuss and debate, then we’ll work with you to pass on your suggested amendments to your state Green party. Only state Green parties and national party caucuses can submit amendments. The amendments must be sent to the Platform Committee no later than April 15th.

This is your chance to lend your voice to the Green Party’s vision for our world.

I hope you’ll join us today, and forward this invitation to your friends and colleagues.

Peace,

Marnie Glickman

Executive director, GreenChange.org
Co-chair, Green Party of the United States Platform Committee

Dave Schwab February 5, 2010

“I’m not in any way hopeful that the people actually writing the GP platform will agree, but government spending and regulation are ultimately bad for the environment.”

That statement is too general to be true. Greens definitely agree that much government spending is bad for the environment and our future in general – like fossil fuel subsidies or the massive military budget. However, you can’t argue that the Clean Air Act is bad for the environment. Greens want to cut a lot of spending, and set new priorities so that the money spent by government is actually serving a good purpose – education, health care, green jobs, that sort of thing.

People have this unfounded prejudice that Greens love to recklessly increase taxes and spending, but Greens in government have generally proved themselves much more fiscally responsible than Republicrats.

“Consider that the countries where the economy was/is thoroughly run by the government have been the world’s worst polluters.”

Again, overly general. The Soviet Union and China were/are big polluters, but so is the relatively laissez-faire US. If you compare the US to European economies where government regulation is stronger, the Europeans are much cleaner. Ever been to Scandinavia?

“Consider also that the US government is a bigger polluter than all the country’s corporations – quite possibly bigger than all the corporations combined – and additionally works to absolve corporations of much of the responsibility for their pollution and risk-taking vis a vis the natural environment.”

Yes. That’s why Greens are dedicated to bringing about a US government that isn’t a tool of corporatism and militarism.

13 Comments

Brian Holtz February 5, 2010
I’ll agree with my Green friend Dave over my anarchist friend Paulie that policing pollution is a proper function of government. It should be done with taxes on negative externalities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigovian_tax), rather than centralized bureaucratic regulations like fleet fuel efficiency standards. That’s the essential idea of a Green Tax Shift.
Dave Schwab February 5, 2010
“I’m not in any way hopeful that the people actually writing the GP platform will agree, but government spending and regulation are ultimately bad for the environment.”
That statement is too general to be true. Greens definitely agree that much government spending is bad for the environment and our future in general – like fossil fuel subsidies or the massive military budget. However, you can’t argue that the Clean Air Act is bad for the environment. Greens want to cut a lot of spending, and set new priorities so that the money spent by government is actually serving a good purpose – education, health care, green jobs, that sort of thing.
People have this unfounded prejudice that Greens love to recklessly increase taxes and spending, but Greens in government have generally proved themselves much more fiscally responsible than Republicrats.
“Consider that the countries where the economy was/is thoroughly run by the government have been the world’s worst polluters.”
Again, overly general. The Soviet Union and China were/are big polluters, but so is the relatively laissez-faire US. If you compare the US to European economies where government regulation is stronger, the Europeans are much cleaner. Ever been to Scandinavia?
“Consider also that the US government is a bigger polluter than all the country’s corporations – quite possibly bigger than all the corporations combined – and additionally works to absolve corporations of much of the responsibility for their pollution and risk-taking vis a vis the natural environment.”
Yes. That’s why Greens are dedicated to bringing about a US government that isn’t a tool of corporatism and militarism.
paulie February 4, 2010
I’m not in any way hopeful that the people actually writing the GP platform will agree, but government spending and regulation are ultimately bad for the environment.
Consider that the countries where the economy was/is thoroughly run by the government have been the world’s worst polluters.
Consider also that the US government is a bigger polluter than all the country’s corporations – quite possibly bigger than all the corporations combined – and additionally works to absolve corporations of much of the responsibility for their pollution and risk-taking vis a vis the natural environment.
For anyone who hasn’t read this yet, I recommend
http://aaeblog.com/?s=greensleeves
Green Party fan February 3, 2010
A good idea from the Green Party, and excellent recruiting tool
jason February 3, 2010
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Progressives, socialists and communists alike should all embrace the second amendment. You won’t lose a whole lot of support, but you could potentially gain a lot, and it just makes sense. The purpose of the second amendment is to keep the govt scared of us. Let’s keep the govt scared of us!
Troll Relief Agency February 2, 2010
Democrats, Republicans, libertarians, the Far Right and Communists should get together to sabotage this online platform discussion.
Troll Relief Agency February 2, 2010
PLAS!
Brian Holtz February 2, 2010
Yes, and I come across more all the time. My favorites are compiled at http://earthfreedom.net/ecolibertarianism. A new one that I just found out about is: http://earthfreedom.net/ecolibertarianism.
It’s a new California initiative for a Land Value Tax. Prof. Fred Foldvary helped draft it.
Erik Geib February 2, 2010
I didn’t intend for that to come across as a criticism wherein you were taking the credit. I just wanted others to see there are sites besides the ones you’ve created/hosted that also promote this ideology.
Brian Holtz February 2, 2010
Done.
Only two of my six links above go to pages whose text I was the original author of.
Erik Geib February 2, 2010
Any chance my post can get pulled out of the spam filter?
Erik Geib February 2, 2010
Brian has a habit of primarily linking himself.
Other links for geolibertarianism:
The Geonomy Society
http://www.progress.org/geonomy/
Dan Sullivan’s Geolibertarian Home Page
http://geolib.com/
Where a Tax Reform Has Worked: 28 Case Studies
http://www.progress.org/geonomy/geono05.php
Freedom Democrats:
http://freedomdemocrats.org/
The Progress Report:
http://www.progress.org
Banneker Center for Economic Justice:
http://www.progress.org/banneker/
Democratic Freedom Caucus:
http://www.progress.org/dfc/index.html
The Henry George Institute
http://www.henrygeorge.org/
Brian Holtz February 2, 2010
Greens and Libertarians Should Get Ready To Govern is an extremely insightful analysis. Green libertarianism is the answer, but most people don?t understand the question. Shireman does.
EarthFreedom.net is a portal for green libertarianism. Items linked there include:
The Green Tax Shift
The Free Earth Manifesto
The Ten Key Green-Libertarian Values
The Democratic Freedom Caucus platform
The future of freedom is green.

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